Section 17

Thoughts of trembling, terrified swine in a comer of a pen, trying vainly to get away from a knife. Thoughts of chickens and ducks and turkeys, pulled from a roost, their heads twisted off, their bodies thrown upon a snow-bank to flop out the death- agony. Thoughts of a humming-bird's helplessness in the hands of a boy. Thoughts of beeves sliced into meat, and of the stuck throats of heifers.
Thoughts of children crying for bread. Thoughts of weary women toiling into the midnight hour. Thoughts of homeless men and the " move along" of the policeman. Thoughts of unre- quited labor. Thoughts of prayer as prayer, of beseechings going continuously to the God, but never, never, never an answer com- ing from the sky. Doubt everywhere.
Atlantis, — not at all an unparalleled story. The time, perhaps, a summer's afternoon ; nameless thousands in holiday garb cele- brating a feast-day, throwing kisses to the God, chanting paeans of thankfulness for abundant blessings seen everywhere, in pros- tration before a host, confident under a sheltering arm. Priests in church attire, maidens bearing garlands, parents happy in chil- dren and children joyous in parents, marrying and being given in marriage, building and tearing down, planting and rooting up.
An ominous rumble coming toward the land from out the
depth of the sea ; a sudden overwhelming crash, a mighty water rising and a continent sinking, mountain waves drowning meas- ureless valleys, hills covered over and disappearing, nameless
CONFUSIONS.
i6S
thousands aghast and screaming for mercy, nameless thousands bruised, buried, crushed by the surging, whirling torrent.
A very little later, and long, soft-flowing waves in dreamy
stillness rock to sleep with mother-like softness a gull resting upon the sea, — a nameless single bird floating upon the surface of deep waters that roll over Atlantis, over its streets, over its lines of shade-trees, over its priests, its maidens, its parents.
Doubt everywhere, belief nowhere. Constrained to laugh at the silliness of people who materialize for the God a human ear ; kneeling never any more j faith and trust gone with the winds j certitude a myth.
There are door-steps leading to the Spiritus Sanctus; this is the fifth one.
1 66 SPIRITUS SANCTUS.
XIII.
PRESTIGIATION.
As one in reading sometimes lays down his book with view to collateral yet relevant thought, so the three succeeding chapters are here introduced by reason of connection with other three going before ; they are steps in a way leading to the Spiritus Sanctus.
A circle has its commencement alike anywhere. Prestigiation is to be commended as being quite as good a beginning of the Rosicrucian way as any other ; the Rosicrucian way being a circle. Referring to the spiritistic excitement of a few years back, recognition is had that as people at large are concerned, lessons lie with Objective and not with Subjective. Spiritism contrasts with Spiritualism as does Objectivity with Subjectivity, both being one while seeming contraries. The tipping of a table, whether effected by the clum- siest of trickeries, by a utilized employment of mag- netism or electricity, or by the hand of the God him- self, has common significance in that the movement lies with a law that is universal. The law of voice, for example, is one, with difference. The squeak of Catiline just born is the oration of Catiline grown and perfected.
A boy whose attention could not be attracted by the intangible of gravitation has his interest alive instantly in the presence of an overturned barrow with its load spilled upon the ground. A miller uses for the pur- poses of his wheel a down -running stream, but concerns
PRESTIGIA TION.
167
himself little or not at all as to that getting back of the water which keeps his stream a circle.
The lack of seeing gravitation in overturned wheel- barrows and evaporation in down-running streams is the lack of others besides boys and millers.
It is known to more than a little multitude of people that a fund was left, several years back, to the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, in trust, to be employed in ex- amination of the so-called ** spiritistic" phenomena of the times. The gentleman leaving this fund had im- plicit faith in the reality of such manifestations, and it was his intention, as is well known to the writer, to secure influential means, first, as to endorsement, which he never doubted would be the result of an examina- tion, and, second, as to extension of a good enjoyed by himself. This trust being accepted, a committee was appointed to carry out its intentions.
ThQ personnel oi this committee impressed the com- munity as being exceptionally good. The result of the work of the committee impressed the community as being exceptionally nothing. *' Looking on glass but not through it," was the attitude of the committee. An only thing seen was surface. "Not deceived," comprised the substance of the report made. A Rosi- crucian would look on such a committee of men as de- ceived beyond the credulity of a thinker to comprehend. Nothing seen where there was so much to see ! A com- mittee led on for weeks and months by tricksters, see- ing in all this time, even at the very end, not even so much as a first letter of a great alphabet lying with tricks, — lying with any trick.
Prestigiation as commencement of exploration among
1 68 SFIRITUS SANCTUS,
the fields of Spiritus Sanctus has to its advantage that it attracts equally the cultivated and the uncultivated. The latter illustrates sitters at a circus overawed by tricks of agility and strength. The former illustrates the physicist who approaches the gymnasts and feels their muscles.
A trick supposes something else than what the trick is, yet is a thing, anything, whatever it may be, not in itself but in something else. Everything is in some- thing else than itself until the God is reached. Com- prehension stops with the word God, as this is a name to which induction leads and at which it stays. Who God is, and what God is, as to origin, shows itself as none of a man's business ; this for the reason that in- duction stops at such point. Whatever induction sug- gests, or leads to, this is man's concern. Where in- duction stops, here ceases man's concern. Induction stops with God as Noumenon, — not as Noumena, but as Noumenon. Noumenon is the word signifying that out of which all things come and back into which all things go ; this forever and forever. It is not of the slightest importance to man that the Noumenon may not here be well named. The circle of man lies un- completed only as new inductions are found to exist in and arise out of old ones. Noumenon ends induc- tion. Matter associates with induction as related with it in question of origin. Ego likewise offers question of " whence." Beyond the God is the unthinkable. The unthinkable is one with a thing outside of man's circle.*
Induction was apparently not used by the committee
* The subject is discussed in " Man and his World."
PRESTIGIATION. 1 69
alluded to; certainly it had no part in the investi- gations. The idea was to find presence or absence of supernatural with things presented for observation. There is no supernatural this side of God ; hence su- pernatural was not to be found. Had so massive a thing been found by the committee as a mountain sus- pended in the air, the phenomenon would not have lain with the mountain, but with gravitation. Had a tree been grown in their presence from seed to fruit in a single day, it would not have been supernatural, but simply unfamiliar. Difference between such a growth and that met with in field or garden is of degree and as- sociation. Myself having forced the growth of weeping willows twenty feet in a single season shows me that by knowing more than I do about the matter I might force them sixty feet ; more than this, that I might break off a branch at night and have a sixty-foot tree in the morning.
Prestigiation is legerdemain to the uninitiated only ; know-how ends mystery. But exposure of one mys- tery is always offering of another. So on from mystery to mystery ; so on from lesser to greater.
Study of growth leads to study of force. Sight of a feather floating in the air leads to sight of an invisible supporting atmosphere. Comprehension of atmosphere leads to appreciation of rarer things back of it as these exist in gases. To consider gravitation is to recognize invisible as stronger than visible \ is to see sun, moon, and stars supported by an invisible that is stronger than visible. — Paracelsus is right, **The beginning of knowledge is beginning of understanding of the super- natural."
Let passage be made to dreams and visions.
H 15
lyo SPIRITUS SANCTUS,
DREAMS.
The highest wisdom is attainable only through direct revelation made to the individual.
Leaving with a reader the confusions, or lessons, as it may be, of the recitals preceding, advance is to be made to a consideration of the nature of dreams and visions.
Dreams are of two kinds. Yet are the kinds related. Illustration of such difference and relation lies with the twitching of the limbs of a sleepy person con- trasted with similar movements under direction of will. Both these kinds of movements lie with mus- cular action resultant of nerve impressions. The first is of strict association with automatic action, which action is independent of direction or Egoism, hence is meaningless ; legs are thought of, not Ego. The latter directs attention to Ego, not to limbs.
An ordinary dream has its crudities explainable in imperfect instrumentation. A brain half asleep is likable to a piano out of tune. With neither instru- ment is capability to make proper immediate response. The thoughts of a page being read are thoughts by an Ego. As a pen splutters with its user or works easily, thus influencing the appearances of a writing, so expression given thoughts rests with the bad or good working condition of a brain. If attempt be made to write thoughts when a brain is half asleep,
DREAMS. 171
result is akin with attempt to play music when a piano is out of tune.
Because few people are Egoistic to an extent of in- dependency of ordinary means of instrumentation, the brain is always attempted to be used by Ego in its ex- cursionizings during sleep-conditions, the sleep affect- ing the brain but not the Ego ; hence confusion, — things being heard strangely and confusedly by the ears, seen strangely and confusedly by the eyes, touched, tasted, and smelled strangely and confusedly by the other half-asleep organs of sense. An ordinary, or confused, dream never occurs where perfect sleep exists. A brain put sound asleep dismisses instantly the halluci- nations of a mania-a-potuist ; this for the reason that Egoistic activity as here existing is at once rid of per- versions lying with instrument. Sound sleep on the part of an ordinary man means stillness of Ego by reason of absence of organs : illustration lies with a broken-legged man who ceases to walk out of fault of his limbs.
Ego is assumed as never sleeping. Immortality is one with eternal consciousness. Consciousness, how- ever, may be lacking as to means of expression : hence a tongue asleep Ego is temporarily without means for talking, a nose asleep Ego is without means for smelling ; so alike as to seeing, hearing, touching, and tasting. But it is not Ego that is asleep.
Now, concerning the dreams of the sensitives, — the poets, the musicians, the communers with spirits, the architects.
Can a dream be independent ? Putting this query in other language, Can Ego act disassociated from
172 SPIRITUS SANCTUS.
its brain? If reference be here had to ordinary brain as familiar to the anatomist, the answer of Rosicrucian- ism is, Yes. Surely Ego loses its ordinary brain at the moment of so-called death ! Not to reply with Rosi- crucianism is to relegate man to oblivion. An acorn finds itself one with the massive trunk, the gnarled and wide-spreading limbs, and the countless leaves of the oak-tree. An acorn drops to the ground minus trunk, limbs, and leaves. A dropped acorn is found later one with hypostases of trunk, limbs, and leaves. As in an acorn are the hypostases of its needs, so with Ego are the hypostases of its needs.
Brain is indeed one with paradox. It is more than an arbitrary arrangement that divides the encephalic man into cerebrum, cerebellum, pons Varolii, and medulla oblongata. No part sleeps but cerebrum. A momentary forgetfulness by the other parts would mean bodily death to a sleeper. Cerebrum is the in- strument of the Ego. The other parts are instruments of organic life ; being never wholly, indeed but little, under direction of Ego. Distinction between man as Ego and his habitation, or environment, is so plain as to be without confusion to him who understands the distinction between the cerebro-spinal and sympathetic nervous systems.
Dreams that are one with communications made to a sleeping man by a something apart from himself, whatever the something may be, are independent of his cerebrum \ for such dreams would not be the plain and perfect things they are if semi-consciousness of the anterior brain existed to confuse them. A dream of the purely inspirational class, that is, a dream which
VISIONS,
173
is one with communication made to the Ego of a sleeping man by an intelligence apart from his own, is clear as to its character, whatever the character may be; the poet gets his lines, the musician his score, the architect his design, the philosopher his aphorism. Soul, like to Ego, never sleeps, and is most alive to relationship with its divine source when eyes are closed in slumber and ears are shut against external sounds. After such manner of communication is much of what has been given and is being given by the God. The Christian Bible, where not simple story of history, is recital of dreams.
XV.
VISIONS.
It is not thought wonderful that the face of a per- son or other apparently objective sight comes before a looker as he gazes on burning coals or at a cloud- spread sky. Everybody meets such sights occasion- ally. A Sensitive sees them let his eyes be turned where they may.
Sensitives, let it be recalled, are not sensitive alike to all things : hence reference again to the poet, the musi- cian, the architect, and the philosopher. Things seen in glowing coals, in clouds, in the fields, in the waters of flowing streams, in up-turned clay-banks, accord with what is the sensitivity of a beholder.
Visions are not to be associated with communica- tions of the God to men, save in the sense that in a 15*
174
SPIRITUS SANCTUS.
law perceivable and enjoyable by him who is able to perceive and enjoy lies such communication. Visions are within, never without. The sitter by one's side sees the picture in the coals only as it is pointed out by the more sensitive companion. A sitter by one's side, not being at all sensitive, sees nothing at the pointed-out place. The lines of a poet, the scores of a musician, the Vox Dei that arouses rapture, these are never elsewhere than internal. Inventions, scores, lines, designs, aphorisms, all are self making. Inter- nal is musician, internal is poet, internal is architect; internal is philosopher. Internal is what hypostasis is. Internal is external.
Here an important paradox propounds itself. Imag- inary things, so called, are the real things, nor are those other things called by people at large real things anything but shadows. Question resolves itself into meaning.
Here is to be repeated the aphorism of explanation : A thing is to a sense that uses it what to the sense it seems to be : it is never anything else. Not to possess acceptancy of this aphorism by reason of an under- standing of it that demonstrates its absolute truthful- ness, thus affording knowledge of man's command of the Universal, is to have made no departure from the perception of uneducated animal senses.
Study and understanding of this aphorism impress the writer as being one with study and understanding of life.
Things imagined and things material are of similar import ; both existences being in the User, and being nowhere else. Tangible is imagination materialized.
VISIONS.
175
Materialization is with him who can materialize. With man is power to make the kind of world in which he elects to live.
A star seen in the sky by an Umbratile was re- marked by no one of hundreds who at the time walked upon the streets ; the Umbratile, however, saw it. Once upon a time, now nearly nineteen hundred years ago, three Magi saw a star, and followed it to where a young child lay in a manger. A cross seen in the sky by Constantine was seen by no single one of legions led to victory by reason of the sign. Illus- tration, appreciable by the crudest, lies with a hint afforded by Paracelsus. A wood-carver sees, by reason of his imagination, a beautiful image imprisoned in a log of wood, which log has been sold him by a wood- chopper for a groat. Cutting into this log, a form is found liberated almost too costly for price to buy. Such an image, or other equally wonderful one, is dis- covered by a carver in any and every tree-trunk brought him by a chopper. Cuttings made by choppers dis- cover alone cord-wood and chips.
Imaginations, when materialized, take the name
of art ; when remaining as pure idea, the name given them is inspirations.